$218M federal grant will bring broadband to remaining Tennesseans lacking service

Tennessee lawmakers Thursday approved more than $218 million in federal grant funding to complete the state’s push to make high-speed internet available to all businesses and residents.

The funds will deliver broadband service to nearly 44,000 Tennessee households and businesses located in serviceable but currently unserved or underserved areas of the state. About half of those communities lacking adequate broadband access are in East Tennessee. Another 18,600 are in Middle Tennessee and 4,400 are in West Tennessee.

Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development can now begin contracts with internet service providers with the goal of completing the 128 funded projects by the end of 2028. 

Tennessee to distribute additional $813M to broadband providers in effort to expand rural access

The companies receiving the money will provide $200 million in matching funds, according to a department news release.

“This covers high-speed internet solutions to all the remaining unserved households in Tennessee,” Broadband Program Director Taylre Beaty said at Thursday’s meeting to a state House and Senate Joint Committee.

The grant funding comes from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, BEAD, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed under former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. The money is administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

The BEAD program originally required broadband projects to be limited to fiber networks, but President Donald Trump’s administration reshaped the program in summer 2025 to be “technology neutral.” This means less expensive options like low-Earth orbit satellite networks that still meet the minimum performance metrics for high-speed internet can be installed with program dollars.

The state has also allocated hundreds of millions of dollars toward broadband expansion and other related initiatives under Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, but this was significantly boosted by the federal government.

Under Biden’s administration, Tennessee was allocated up to $813 million for broadband expansion. At the time, Beaty said the state estimated it would cost nearly $800 million to install fiber in all of the locations. 

Beaty said the state is awaiting guidance from Trump’s administration on how Tennessee can use the roughly $600 million remaining for “non-deployment” uses like programs supporting adoption, accessibility and affordability. 

In May 2025, the Trump administration also cut roughly $2.75 billion in funding for the separate Digital Equity Act, which focused on training and support for people who had never learned to use computers.

“One of the challenges that we have in this state is about adoption,” Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican, said Thursday. “You can have the fiber coming to the home, you can have the alternative resource, but people still have to choose to use the resource.”

Beaty said previous broadband expansion efforts in Tennessee have seen utilization rates between 40% and 60%, but in areas served by other grant projects focused on adoption, rates rose to 80% to 90%.

Rep. Ryan Williams, a Cookeville Republican, asked if affordability was the (primary reason someone may not use high-speed internet once it’s available.

“Absolutely,” Beaty said.

Watson also questioned whether the homes and businesses that will have access to alternate technologies instead of fiber will be “somehow left behind because they don’t have what would be considered the state-of-the-art technology” as technology continues to develop.

“We believe all of these households are going to have a high-speed technology solution,” Beaty said.

The state’s broadband program considered population density and tree canopy coverage when evaluating the viability of alternative internet services, she said.

“I would also say that that’s something that was a huge priority of the Trump administration,” Beaty added. “We’ve been working with them on how to both meet the intent and the new requirements of the program, while also doing right by Tennesseans and ensuring that where we did use an alternative solution due to cost, that it is a high-speed internet solution based on the circumstances and the environment that that solution will be placed (in).”